Sci-Fi MMOs?

So I found an article on Massively a little while ago that talked about the dearth of good sci-fi MMOs on the market, and postulated some reasons why this might be. I love sci-fi, I was hooked on Star Wars at an early age (sorry Trekkies), and I've often wondered about the same thing—you can see the evidence of it in earlier blogs, like this one which refers to EVE Online. The article, if you're interested, is here.

Now there are a lot of interesting ideas posed in this article, some of which I agree with and some of which I don't. But what I really found interesting was the recently posted response on TechRadar, here.

Massively suggests that Sci-Fi MMOs have had trouble gaining traction are due to a number of primarily aesthetic factors—the author mentions the tendency of sci-fi game designers to base their games off of intellectual properties with their roots in the old-school tabletop gaming days, leading to the creation of a lot of really convoluted rules-systems. After all, the future is more advanced, right? And what better way to signify that advancement than with increased complexity? Obviously this makes the games less accessible, and accessibility is responsible for a good portion of WoW's success.

The author also suggests that one of the reasons responsible for the lack of success with Sci-Fi MMOs is because they don't have the cultural heritage that fantasy settings have. There's some truth to this. The Lord of the Rings books had its first installment, The Hobbit, in 1937, and LOTR is the godfather of nearly all modern fantasy. Having that "common ground" as a touchstone (everyone pretty much knows what elves, orcs, dwarves and gnomes are) makes fantasy MMOs more accessible than sci-fi MMOs.

I think this argument falls flat, though. The "godfather" position of modern Sci-Fi is shared between the first Star Wars movie (1977) and the original Star Trek television series (1966). The average WoW player is about 35 years old. According to the Entertainment Software Association, the average gamer is 35 years old, and has been playing games for 13 years. That would mean the average gamer was born in 1974, three years before Star Wars: A New Hope and eight years after Star Trek. I think the world has reached the point where we can agree that sci-fi fans have just as much of a common cultural heritage as fantasy fans.

What TechRadar proposes is that the reason why sci-fi MMOs don't work is very simple: "It's the levels."

The thought is that the central themes of fantasy stories are all about superhuman people doing superhuman things. The fantasy stories we love have most of their roots in mythology, which are always about individual people having godlike powers and doing uber-powerful things. The same is true of WoW—the whole point is to go from a level 1 weenie to a level 80 badass in Tier 37 armor, and then going and saving the world. Fantasy stories are about heroes.

This isn't true for sci-fi stories. All our favorite Sci-Fi characters are anti-heroes. Who out there can honestly say that Luke Skywalker was cooler than Han Solo?

Sci-fi is supposed to feel more real to us. It's supposed to be about people who succeed against impossible odds—and that's interesting to us not because they're demi-gods, but because they're not demi-gods. And because of this, the whole traditional arc of a fantasy MMO (level 1 weenie to level 80 badass) doesn't feel right. Sci-fi games want a sandbox treatment, not a linear treatment—that's the reason why the Star Wars Galaxies game update offended so many people.

So this begs the question: Is it possible to make a Sci-Fi MMO compelling? If the traditional levelling progression and gear progression mechanic doesn't work for a sci-fi MMO...what will?

Comments

Comment by Inhaler

on 2009-04-08T22:41:02-05:00

Tabula Rasa was pretty interesting looking, but I think it suffered from the complexity factor, and the fact that there wasnt really a "class" system where you depended on others (not from what I experience, even going into 'instances'). I think a Sci-Fi MMO can be compelling, it just needs to achieve the "Worldly" experience rather than feeling like a very big single player game.

Comment by Archon

on 2009-04-08T23:05:38-05:00

@InhalerThe main fault of Tabula Rasa was the content, repeating over and over.Although it had a lot of great innovations for casual players, boredom came sooner or later to everyone, because each new location was just a reskinned copy of the previous one.However, I miss Tabula Rasa badly. It was a great project. Hope someone will learn from its mistakes and do a Sci-Fi MMO right.

Comment by luckyllama

on 2009-04-08T23:38:44-05:00

One of the problems I have is that I'm used to orcs and goblins, elves and dwarves. When you get to Sci-Fi, creative types tend to go overboard and create completely original characters and species (even in Star Wars and Star Trek). It's good to create new things but you have a greater chance of failure--of people taking one look, rolling their eyes, and walking away.

For instance, I love Sci-Fi and Fantasy books but often the cover art is so over the top and trashy it makes me groan and a little hesitant to read it (although the author often has little to do with the cover art).

Perhaps that's just me, those books sell cover art and all.

Comment by Phedora

on 2009-04-08T23:45:17-05:00

EVE is a scifi MMO and it' seems pretty successful to me, even if it is ludicrously hard.

Let's hope the upcoming Star Trek MMO doesn't disappoint.

Comment by Shigy

on 2009-04-09T01:05:45-05:00

I think a sci fi MMO can and does work. Two great examples are eve (obviously) and Anarchy Online (its getting a bit long in the tooth but its been around a long time and is still going). I think the trick is to not just get a fantasy MMO copy paste it and renamed sword to laser sword. You can still have character development without going from useless to god.I think eve is a great break from the "traditional" leveling system of MMOs. In that even a very young character can be in a frigate helping a 5 year old character in there battleship. Now when was the last time you saw a level 5 helping a level 80? Its great from a social point of view since almost straight away you can do things with your friends. I think the trick is more thought needs to be put into a sci fi MMO to make it work.

Comment by cerement

on 2009-04-09T01:37:40-05:00

Earth and Beyond was a great MMO, easy, fun, levelling via combat, trade, and exploration. But then EA happened. Westwood gets bought by EA, EA kills off advertising, claims lack of players, recycles servers for Sims Online (which EA also proceeded to kill).

Keeping with tropes we know, how many of us, when Blizzard started teasing us with a new Starcraft release, were desperately hoping for World of Starcraft (not Starcraft II)?

Comment by Nordigo

on 2009-04-09T01:42:35-05:00

Is it possible? Very much yes! Eve Online has as rich lore as WoW does, and it's roleplaying population is surprisingly thriving considering that they are forced to play with the lolbois - there's only one huge server, arguably the biggest and meanest in all of MMO's considering there's nowadays around 30-40 thousand people logged in outside of daily downtime every day. Back when I started it 12k people online at the same time was huge news..

Uh, anyways. The story of it is compelling, and being continuously told - my character is a Minmatar, a partially former slave race for the Amarr. (Partially? Many of them still are, though sizable number manage to rebel and form their own empire.) With the addition of Factional Warfare I can read "news" of the fictional happenings of New Eden that concerns my race, and then there are the general news of the happenings of the said universe, such as the scientist being both baffled and intrigued by previously unseen phenomenons such as the wormholes implemented in the newest expansion, and before this there were news about the tensions rising, culminating to a suicide attack before the war between empires erupted. All of this was written very beautifully, like a novel - some of the more important events such as the start of factional warfare were even "televised" by "The Scope", a large independent news agency in the New Eden universe.

With EvE, I think everything that can be done right with a sci-fi MMO has been done right, over the years - considering the things you've pointed out: For one, you can beat players that have played 4 years and you only a month. There is no silly leveling system. While many people hate it that you can "progress" without doing anything really, there is a charm to it that your skills and abilities improve without you having to sit by your monitor 20 hours a day. With the new skillqueue system implemented in Apocrypha the game has become even more accessible in those terms, as you don't have to log in every hour to switch your noobskills - the queue can make your skilling automatic in the space of a day. Eve is very much a sandbox where you can rise to fame and profit however you like, be it piracy and ransoming unwary pilots for sparing their ship or life, producing raw materials for the economy run solely by players, producing goods from the said materials and/or playing the economy - buy/produce cheap, sell with profit. It has relatively small playerbase, but a faithful one, which seems to be growing steadily over time. And with the accessibility being improved patch by patch, I can only see the game thrive even more, given enough time. It will never be WoW, but it will become the most succesfull sci-fi MMO in near future. It already is, in fact.

....That being said, I'm eagerly waiting for the World of Darkness MMO being developed by the guys who created EvE (CCP).

Comment by blademeld

on 2009-04-09T02:04:28-05:00

EVE is a scifi MMO and it' seems pretty successful to me, even if it is ludicrously hard.

Let's hope the upcoming Star Trek MMO doesn't disappoint.

I like this summary.

Anyways imo, MMO's are about interaction, as long as they didn't write the lore in 5 minutes and retcon everything it should be good.

And Star Trek has a lot of background and lore to back it up.

Considering aesthetic factors, lets take a look at draenei (males) and spaceships.

WTF.

Comment by thechamp45

on 2009-04-09T02:30:44-05:00

I think eve is a great break from the "traditional" leveling system of MMOs. In that even a very young character can be in a frigate helping a 5 year old character in there battleship. Now when was the last time you saw a level 5 helping a level 80? Its great from a social point of view since almost straight away you can do things with your friends. I think the trick is more thought needs to be put into a sci fi MMO to make it work.

you know, i wish that world of warcraft was slightly more this way. definetly not a level 5, but maybe a concept of an average soldier, ie, like level 60 would be an average soldier, and would be the kind of person who makes up the bulk of an army, and like an 80 would be like a lietuenant or something idk. it would be cool if level 60's could still help 80's and stuff for their lives, rather then something being 20 levels higher is like god and couldn't be killed by a thousand of you.

Comment by Feydakin

on 2009-04-09T02:41:53-05:00

Earth and Beyond was a great MMO, easy, fun, levelling via combat, trade, and exploration. But then EA happened. Westwood gets bought by EA, EA kills off advertising, claims lack of players, recycles servers for Sims Online (which EA also proceeded to kill).

Hear Hear! I was just thinking about E&B when I was reading the OP... I played E&B from phase 4 beta until the day they closed the doors, and I loved every minute. It was a sorely underrated and under appreciated MMOG that had a ton of potential. It was simple and accessible enough to appeal to a broad range of players, yet it had the potential to be complex enough for the hardcore gamer. It can be done, it just needs to be done right, by a company that knows what they are doing and cares about their customers, and knows their demographic... Which EA did not at the time.

Comment by fori

on 2009-04-09T03:03:58-05:00

fallout 3 would work as an MMO, the character is more or less an antihero, but you can move around freely in the world doing quests (though all are optional, eventualy you have to do the main quest)and you have 100% freedom in wether you want to be good or bad(f.ex: there's an undetonated nuke in the center of megaton and already at the start of the game you have to decide between disarming it or... detonating it.... thus killing a few hundred ppl)the not only outcome of the game depends on wether your actions were good or bad but also how other ppl interact with you(f.ex: i'm playing the good way atm, and i have been tried to assasinate by mercs)and there's even lvls (from 1 - 20 but , atleast they're there)they'd have to figure a way around the game ending after you do the main quest but instead endgame content being then though

Comment by perfectfromnowon

on 2009-04-09T03:36:17-05:00

What did you guys think of Hellgate: London? I loved it and think it kind of passes for Sci-Fi. Too bad it's dead :(

But it wasn't a pure MMO though since every level was instanced, like Diablo 2.

Comment by Ashkir

Comment by Sethril

The biggest thing that attracted me to EVE Online, and that would attract me to a "successful" sci-fi MMO was:

the diversity in ship models.

rich engaging storyline.

the feel as if I was part of something epic (inter-world engagement).

.....and despite what most people say, a game mechanic that was complex enough to make me believe that I was playing a game set in the distant future.

A successful MMO based in any type of sci-fi universe would need these crucial components. It could be based upon an existing franchise, or it could be based on something entirely new.

As stated by the OP sci-fi simply doesn't have the roots to draw upon that the fantasy genre does, and imho I believe that sci-fi suffers from one other deathblow.

Sci-fi has always been the ultimate in geekdom/nerdage.

Some may argue this, but I've always found that people who enjoy science fiction to be looked at as dreamers, nut jobs, wierdos....and those are the nicer things I've heard. Fantasy can also be privy to similar judgments, however it seems to me that sci-fi has always been the peak of these judgements, which simply discourages most people from openly admitting that they enjoy alien worlds, spaceships, and all the rest.

One thing that would certainly be worth noting is the fact that your experience between the two is drastically different. A fantasy MMO (for me) is about being epic. I want to take on the biggest and baddest that Azeroth has to offer and I thirst for more. For those of you who may have never played EVE before you may be surprised to hear that one of the things I enjoyed most was the aspect of space exploration. The soundtrack was phenomenally composed, and cruising through space in whatever you happened to be flying had this strange serenity to it. You'd break that up with the odd pirate or opposing player that crossed your path, but simply exploring was absolutely sublime.

*shrug*

anyways that's my $0.02

Comment by Tribunal

on 2009-04-09T06:05:50-05:00

I want some Tier 37!

I think that the point that is brought up the least, but is one of the most valid, is what you've mentioned here: Sci-Fi is about normal people.

Most people don't log into an MMO to be a "normal person". They log in to be a hero, even if it's on a subconscious level.

People log in to games like Second Life to be normal.... pretty, rich, and interesting, but still bascially normal. And I think that mind set 'turns off' traditional MMO-ers/Gamers. They look around and go "Ok, where's the big monster I'm supposed to be killing... that monster who my whole 'life' has in someway or another been related to.... wait, there is no monster? There's only socializing, paying rent, decorating, and dressing myself? That's no fun."

To have a compelling Sci-fi MMO, I think you need to bring in some element of a common enemy, of being a 'hero', even if you're only a hero of circumstance, rather than of magical powers.

Anyway, I'm tired, and I apologize if some of that doesn't make sense.

Comment by Nordigo

on 2009-04-09T06:12:11-05:00

Well, fantasy setting does have the backing of fairy tales and beliefs to mythical creatures from hundreds if not thousands years old - this stuff is almost imprinted to our subconcious by now. Modern science fiction on the other hand has existed only about 140 years.

Comment by Nephilliae

on 2009-04-09T06:14:27-05:00

Before WoW, I have played a "little" mmorpg called Neocron.It didn't achieved much success. It was very buggyBut it was definitively my best experience with mmorpg (yes, even better than wow)

The concept was that of a post apocalyptic world, where a part of the population has leaved a mostly irradiated Earth.Those who remained where put into stasis. The players are one of those recently awake.You were citizen of the Neocron city, and member of one of the faction in this city. Or a few factions OUT of the city.

There was 4 character class whose sole difference was the maximum in attributesBy using a competence, you were augmenting an attribute linked to the competence (firing pistol made dexterity raise), which in turn allowed you to spend point to raise skills linked to the attributeA character could use any item, provided he reach requirement.

The best things about this game :- GM were REALLY game master : events and plots where often organized- only ONE character per server : you messed with people, you get a bad reputation !- mature content- you could kill any one in the game. well, you could try anyway ;-)

But then, there has been a lot of broken promise with this game, and when the sequel was launched, it was not interessting anymore (my point of view here ...)

(sorry for my english)

Comment by Queggy

on 2009-04-09T06:56:01-05:00

Lol, I totally recognize what Star Trek episode that picture is from. I guess that proves I'm a semi-Trekkie.Good article by the way Mal!

Comment by whipping

on 2009-04-09T07:37:19-05:00

hmm... I would like to see MMO based on BSG. Or Alien/Predator.

edited: I did play EVE and to me it is boring because:

1. progress in skills does not really depend on most of your actions in the world.2. PVE is really repetitive - there are like 20 different quest templates and then they are filled with corresponding name of the faction to kill.3. complexity of gameplay - for a successful play you will need to run 2 accounts simultaneously (one mines one guards, one creates cyno field one jumps and so on). However i really liked the complexity of skill trees.4. almost NO hotkeys or ability to bind them AT ALL - everything is done via drop menus with mouse.

Comment by JamesKilton

on 2009-04-09T07:49:26-05:00

Definitely some good points here, but most Sci-Fi MMOs fail because they are 1) crap to start or 2) handled very very poorly (I'm looking at you, SOE).

I'm disappointed at the complete lack of any mention of Jumpgate Evolution. If there's any Sci-Fi MMO that will be the next to succeed after EVE Online, it's this one. It's pretty much shaping up to be my perfect MMO: the gameplay and learning curve of Freelancer, with an ever evolving depth to hopefully rival that of EVE.

We have a promising Sci-Fi MMO future IMO, we just need to wait a little longer (and pray, pray hard for Stargate: Worlds).